Nov. 23, 2021
Lawyer’s Daily – Terry Davidson
Coalition’s call for automatic pardons ‘important step forward’: Lawyer
The Fresh Start Coalition has a good idea say Davidson, and one that would introduce a significant step forward for criminal law and rehab. Calling the approach ‘a spent regime’ rather than an application process, Criminal Lawyers Association Vice President Daniel Brown is urging the move as well. Says the Coalition: “First Start wants the government “to implement a ‘spent regime’, which would automatically seal a person’s criminal record if they have successfully completed their sentence and lived in the community without further criminal convictions… Adopting a spent regime will promote reintegration and workforce participation and improve community safety” https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/criminal/articles/31479/coalition-s-call-for-automatic-pardons-important-step-forward-lawyer?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal
Ottawa Citizen – Meagan Gillis
Advocates keep up push for Ottawa police budget freeze with police services board set to consider $14-million increase – Earlier this month, the Ottawa Police Service unveiled the first draft of its 2022 budget with an increase of nearly three per cent over its 2021 figure.
As reported already, a number of cities are currently confronted by considerable cost increases from the municipal budget for policing for 2022 – both inflationary maintenance and additional officer costs. A common measure for the increase is to suggest how much the increase is worth in the property taxes of an individual owner: $19 per household in Ottawa in a total budget of $346.5-million net operating. The obvious issue is the need for other services from the city which are denied in deference to policing and the obvious inference that there are many services police now defaulted to police which they cannot do effectively. Advocates want the budget frozen at least. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/advocates-keep-up-push-for-ottawa-police-budget-freeze-with-police-services-board-set-to-consider-14-million-increase
Maytree Foundation – Advancing Justice Series
Expanding the Talent Pool: Why the criminal justice system needs more diversity and inclusion
The link brings a series of reflections on what is needed to make the law more equitable and responsive to more identifiably groups within our communities. “Maytree president Elizabeth McIsaac speaks to Dr. Tanya (Toni) De Mello, Assistant Dean for Student Programming, Development and Equity at the Lincoln Alexander Law School at Ryerson University, and Harsimran Sidhu and Kaylee Rich, both students at the law school.” They discuss “how the barriers obstructing access to justice for Indigenous, Black, and racialized people are found not only in the legal profession itself, but in the academic pipeline that produces its practitioners.” https://maytree.com/what-we-focus-on/advancing-justice/ (Link includes all the articles in the Advancing Justice Series.)
Together for the common good (UK)
This group is quite focused on the notion that we can define the elements of our life together in society and make judgments and decisions predicated on the adherence to the common good among us. While decidedly religious in outlook (RC), the movement defines itself: “The Common Good is the shared life of a society in which everyone can flourish – as we act together in different ways that all contribute towards that goal, enabled by social conditions that mean every single person can participate. We create these conditions and pursue that goal by working together across our differences, each of us taking responsibility, according to our calling and ability… The Common Good is something we build together – it fosters community spirit and strengthens the bonds of social trust. It transcends party political positions.” The helpfulness of this link may be in the broad scope of comment and critique of current decision making process that offends the common good. Especially helpful are the leaders section. https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/about/common-good-thinking Leaders link: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/news-views/leading-thinkers Related article: Canadian Press – Marie Woolf Anti-hate groups fear wording problems may delay a new law tackling vitriol online https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2021/11/21/anti-hate-groups-fear-wording-problems-may-delay-a-new-law-tackling-vitriol-online/#.YZpo27pOk2z
The Marshall Project (US) – Diane Nguyen
Tackling a Huge Taboo: Sexual Desire behind Bars – On the outside, most discussions about incarceration and sexual desire are limited to exploitative “reality” shows, violent movies and terrible jokes about homosexuality and prison rape. But like all humans, we deserve some semblance of dignity.
To say that sex in prison is a taboo topic and that there is little or no sympathy even for conjugal visits is the starter here. It may also be that the starting point simply reinforces an inhuman standard of forced compliance with an arbitrary “lewd” standard. Author Tariq Maqbool has been in prison for 19 years and here is his assessment: “Moreover, even if you’re married to someone, contact can’t be too intimate. You can briefly hug or kiss at the beginning and end of a visit only. Officers apply the rules in a completely arbitrary fashion. If you hold your wife for too long, or you kiss her too passionately, you can be charged with a lewd act.” https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/11/18/tackling-a-huge-taboo-sexual-desire-behind-bars
N.Y. Times Editorial (Nov. 20, 2021)
Train the Police to Keep the Peace, Not Turn a Profit
The Times editorial looks at the practice of issuing traffic tickets to augment the local tax revenue and concludes that the practice is simply too dangerous and that, besides deaths and injuries, the traffic stop is a powerful way to undermine trust in the law, especially given the disproportionate number of Black drivers involved. . “The Times investigation found that over the past five years, police officers have killed more than 400 drivers who were not brandishing guns or knives or who were not being pursued for dangerous crimes.” The Times concludes that all jurisdictions, state and local, as well as a federal financial support for the practices, ought to stop forthwith. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/opinion/police-traffic-stops-deaths.html N.Y. Times – Charles M. Blow Rittenhouse and the Right’s White Vigilante Heroes https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/opinion/kyle-rittenhouse-not-guilty-vigilantes.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=OpEd%20Columnists Related article: Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls “There are women in every single state across the U.S. doing life sentences for defending themselves against lethal violence by their abusers… and courts routinely reject their self defense claims.” https://www.phillyjusticeproject.org/# Related article: Toronto Star – Rosie DiManno It’s not the jury that’s wrong in the Kyle Rittenhouse case; it’s the culture https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/11/19/its-not-the-jury-thats-wrong-in-the-kyle-rittenhouse-case-its-the-culture.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=thestar_recommended_for_you Related article: Toronto Star – Shree Paradkar Damn the laws that acquit Kyle Rittenhouse for they show no care for justice https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2021/11/19/damn-the-laws-that-acquit-kyle-rittenhouse-for-they-show-no-care-for-justice.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=thestar_recommended_for_you
Newsweek (US) – Aaron McDade
Families of Parkland School Massacre Victims Settle With FBI Over Its Failure to Stop Gunman
This article may hail the inauguration of a new form of justice and encourage a financial cost accounting of the stubborn resistance to appropriate response from the usual authorities. 17 of the 18 families of people killed in the 2018 Florida Parkland shooting sued the federal government when a tip line phone call warning about the shooter’s acquisition of firearms and his intent to shoot up the school was left without answer or action by the FBI. The $127.5 million settlement by the FBI still leaves issues around the response of other policing agencies in the incident. https://www.newsweek.com/families-parkland-school-massacre-victims-settle-fbi-over-its-failure-stop-gunman-1652239 Related article: Toronto Star – Wendy Gillis External review highlights Toronto police failure to notify SIU in Dafonte Miller beating https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/11/22/external-review-highlights-toronto-police-failure-to-notify-siu-in-dafonte-miller-beating.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=bn_87597